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The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online For Faculty and Instructors - September 2016
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online For Faculty and Instructors - September 2016
Tony Bates
Research Associate
Contact North | Contact Nord
September 2016
Contents
Implications 19
Follow-up 20
2
The changing nature of learning in a digital age 24
Video as a teaching medium 24
Successful uses of video for lectures 25
What are the alternatives? 25
Implications 25
Follow-up 26
3
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online
for Faculty and Instructors
Last year I published an open, online textbook for instructors and faculty called ‘Teaching
in a Digital Age’. This has proved to be a great success, with over 40,000 downloads, and
translations in seven languages.
However, 40,000 is just the tip of the iceberg. Worldwide, there are hundreds of thousands of
faculty and instructors about to embark on or considering the use of online learning for the first
time. Teaching in a Digital Age is over 500 pages long and appeals mainly to instructors who have
already committed to teaching at least partly online.
I’m a great believer in the value of online learning, but only if it is done well. So I didn’t want to
do a ‘selling’ job, but rather to give faculty and instructors a realistic appraisal of what they are
getting into. So I wrote these guides, initially as a series of blog posts, because I couldn’t find
a short and succinct introduction for faculty and instructors thinking about whether or not to do
online teaching in the first place.
What these guides aim to do is to address some common myths and misconceptions about online
learning and online teaching, and in particular to help you make decisions about whether or not
to do online learning in the first place, and if so, what you need to know to do it well. Indeed, in
some places, I suggest certain conditions where you are better off not doing it.
The guides draw on my 40 years of teaching online or at a distance, but more importantly
they also draw on best practices for online learning based on research, and evaluation by
experienced online instructors themselves. Keep in mind the guides are just an introduction – for
more thorough training in online teaching, you need to take an online program or course (with
recommendations in the guides) and/or read Teaching in a Digital Age.
In the meantime, though, I hope you find these guides helpful in deciding on whether or how to
approach teaching online, and I am grateful to Contact North | Contact Nord for pulling the guides
together in this booklet and making them more widely available.
4
Guide 1. What is online learning?
Implications
With the increased use of online learning, every instructor now has to ask themselves
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
two important questions:
1. Where on the continuum of teaching should my course be, and on what basis should I make
that decision?
2. How do I decide, in any form of blended learning, what is best done online, and what is best done
face-to-face?
Teaching in a Digital Age attempts to help you answer such questions, but in order to answer
those questions well, you need to read a lot of the book.
Follow-up
So in the meantime, if you want to know more about what online learning is, here is some
suggested further reading (no more than an hour). Just click on the link:
1. From the periphery to the centre: how technology is changing the way we teach, Chapter 1.7,
Teaching in a Digital Age.
2. The continuum of technology-based learning, Chapter 9.1, Teaching in a Digital Age.
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Guide 2. Isn’t online learning worse than
face-to-face teaching?
The short answer to this question is: no, online learning is neither inherently worse – nor better –
than face-to-face teaching; it all depends on the circumstances.
7
– Blended learning, or a mix of classroom and fully online courses, best suits full-time
undergraduate students who are also working part-time to keep their debt down, and need
the flexibility to do part of their studies online; and
– ‘Dependent’ learners who lack self-discipline or who don’t know how to manage their own
learning probably do better with face-to-face teaching; however, independent learning is
a skill that can be taught, so blended learning is a safe way to gradually introduce such
students to more independent study methods.
• Learning outcomes:
– Embedding technology within the teaching may better enable the development of certain
‘21st century skills’, such as independent learning, confidence in using information
technologies within a specific subject domain, and knowledge management;
– Online learning may provide more time on task to enable more practice of skills, such as
problem-solving in math; and
– Re-design of very large lecture classes, so lectures are recorded and students come
to class for discussion and questions, making the classes more interactive and hence
improving learning outcomes.
Even this is really putting the question round the wrong way. A better question is:
What are the challenges I am facing as an instructor (or my learners are facing as students) that
could be better addressed through online learning? And what form of online learning will work best
for my students?
Quality
However, the most important condition influencing the effectiveness of both face-to-face and
online teaching is how well it is done. A badly designed and delivered face-to-face class has worse
learning outcomes than a well-designed online course – and vice versa. Ensuring quality in online
learning is the topic of future guides.
Implications
1. Don’t worry about the effectiveness of online learning. Under the right conditions, it works well.
2. Start with the challenges you face. Keep an open mind when thinking about whether online
learning might be a better solution than continuing in the same old way.
3. If you think it might be a solution for some of your problems, start thinking about the
necessary conditions for success. The next guides should help you with this.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
Follow-up
Here is some suggested further reading on the effectiveness of online learning:
• More on the research into online learning: Chapter 9.2: Comparing Delivery Methods, in
Teaching in a Digital Age.
• More on what kind of students benefit most from online learning: Chapter 9.3: Which mode?
Student needs, in Teaching in a Digital Age.
• More on the relationship between 21st century skills and online learning: Chapter 1.2: The
skills needed in a digital age, and Chapter 9.4: Choosing between face-to-face and online
teaching on campus, in Teaching in a Digital Age.
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Guide 3. ‘Aren’t MOOCs online learning?’
By 2013, at least one in three students in post-secondary education was taking at least one
online course as part of a degree program. At the moment, according to the U.S. Department
of Education, somewhere between 8-15% of all university degree course enrolments are in fully
online courses. Online course enrolments continue to grow at rate (10-20% per annum) much
faster than enrolments for on-campus courses (2-3% per annum) (Allen and Seaman, 2016).
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• MOOCs, with very few exceptions, do not provide credits towards degrees, although a
certificate may be issued (for a price) for those that complete computer-based assessments.
However, even the institutions offering MOOCs do not accept successful completion of their
courses towards credit in their own institution;
• MOOCs have very low completion rates (less than 10%, usually closer to 5%) whereas
fully online courses for credit often have completion rates as high or just below those for
equivalent face-to-face courses. For instance, in Ontario in 2011, completion rates for all
fully online courses for credit in the Ontario public post-secondary system were within 5%
of completion rates for face-to-face classes in universities, and within 10% for two year
colleges; in other words, roughly 80% or more of students in fully online courses for credit
successfully complete;
• MOOCs provide almost no personal learning support for learners from qualified instructors,
whereas most successful fully online courses for credit have a strong instructor online
presence; and
• MOOCs generally charge no fee to participate (although a fee may be charged for a certificate
of completion); fully online courses for credit normally charge the same fee as, or slightly
higher than, those for campus-based programs or courses.
In other words, MOOCs are just one, more recent, form of online learning. They are more
like continuing education programs, except they are free. Think of them as a modern form of
educational television.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
10
The hype
Much has been made about MOOCs disrupting the higher education system (Christensen, 2010),
being a solution to educational problems in developing countries (Friedman, 2013), and being
a threat to the existence of universities. Leslie Wilson of the European University Association
commented that MOOCs forced vice chancellors to focus on teaching and learning (which I find a
somewhat sad comment: why weren’t they focusing on that before MOOCs came along)?
However, after all the initial publicity, MOOCs settled down into an important but relatively small
niche in post-secondary education, a form of continuing education that still struggles to find a
successful business model that works for the universities that supply MOOCs.
Implications
• Most faculty need, at least in the short-term, to focus on online courses, blended or fully
online, for credit, not MOOCs. These for credit online courses need different approaches in
terms of course design and learner support from MOOCs, if high completion rates are to be
achieved and high level learning skills are to be developed in students;
• For some ‘star’ faculty in subject areas where the university is particularly or uniquely strong,
MOOCs still are an attractive proposition, boosting both the star faculty member’s reach and
reputation, and the brand of the university;
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
• MOOC design will evolve, probably converging towards the designs used for successful
for-credit online courses, but this will likely increase costs; at the same time, the design of
for-credit courses may also benefit from some of the lessons in ‘scaling’ from successful
MOOCs; and
• There are many other forms of online learning besides MOOCs, and within online courses for
credit, there are many different approaches; it is important to be aware of the strengths and
weaknesses of each of these variations in online learning, so the appropriate choices can be
made. This is the topic of the next guide.
11
Follow-up
If you want to know more about MOOCs, and their strengths and weaknesses, here is some
suggested further homework (if you read/watch it all, possibly 2 hours of reading/watching):
• Downes, S. (2012) Massively Open Online Courses are here to stay, Stephen’s Web,
July 20.
• TED Talks: Daphne Koller: What we’re learning from online education.
• From Teaching in a Digital Age:
– 5.1 Brief history
– 5.2 What is a MOOC?
– 5.3 Variations in MOOC designs
– 5.4 Strengths and weaknesses of MOOCs
– 5.5 Political, social and economic drivers of MOOCs
– 5.6 Why MOOCs are only part of the answer
• Coughlan, S. (2106) Top Universities to Offer Full Degrees Online in Five Years‘ BBC News,
July 6.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
12
Guide 4. ‘What kinds of online learning are there?’
In the third guide, I pointed out MOOCs were just one of the many different types of online
learning. In this guide, I provide more detail about the various approaches to online learning, and
also provide a personal evaluation of each approach in terms of quality. This guide is a little longer
than normal, as there are not only many approaches to online learning, but the field is also rapidly
changing and developing.
2. Recorded lectures
Approach
The increased availability of technology such as lecture capture, which records classroom
lectures on digital video and stores them for later downloading over the Internet, and desktop
cameras, resulted in many instructors offering online courses built around recorded lectures.
The lectures are usually the same as those for on-campus classes. Many MOOCs, as well as
courses for credit, use recorded lectures as the main form of delivery.
Evaluation
This approach is again convenient for instructors, especially if they are giving a face-to-face lecture
anyway, and have technical help in recording and storing the lectures. However, this approach
suffers from many of the same problems as the class notes method above. There is additional
problem if the recording is of a normal 50-minute lecture - students often suffer from what is
known as cognitive overload. Although students viewing a recorded lecture have the opportunity
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to stop and re-play material, this can mean a 50-minute lecture may take up several hours for
an online student. MOOC designers, and TED talk designers, realized this and often they limit a
single video to 10-20 minutes in length. Nevertheless, this does not work so well in a full credit
program with maybe 39 lectures over a 13-week semester. Providing transcripts of the lectures
is not only time consuming and adds costs, but again increases the cognitive load for students.
Lastly, there is considerable research that questions the value of lectures as a teaching method.
3. Webinars
Approach
These are ‘live’ sessions usually consisting of a lecture delivered over the Internet, supported
by PowerPoint slides with opportunities for live online chat for the participants. Webinars can
be recorded and made available for online access at another time. Again, ‘good’ webinars tend
to be broken up into smaller 5-10 segments of presentation followed by either online voice or
more commonly (for group management reasons) text comments and questions contributed by
participants to which the lecturer responds.
Evaluation
Webinars come closer to mirroring a live face-to-face class than either class notes or recorded
lectures, and need relatively little adaptation or change for instructors. While webinars tend to be
more interactive than recorded lectures, again it is difficult to cover a whole curriculum through
webinars alone. Also participants need to be available at a set time, which restricts the flexibility
or availability for online students, although the availability of the recording can offset that to some
extent. Webinars using a lecture format also suffer from the same pedagogical limitations for
online students as recorded lectures.
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be called upon as necessary. However, this approach appears initially to be more costly for an
institution, and more work for an instructor. It can take up to two years to design and develop a
large, fully online course, although courses for small classes (less than 40) can be designed in a
much shorter period. However, if the program or course attracts new students, tuition and other
revenues can offset many of the additional costs, for instance, paying for release time for faculty
to work on course design and development.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
This is an interactive infographic. To see more detail on each of the five stages, click on the graphic. © Flexible Learning Australia, 2014
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Common features of such courses are increased activity and choices for learners, more diversity
in course designs, and ‘agile’ or quick design and development. In such courses, students are
often encouraged to seek, analyze, evaluate and apply content to real world issues or contexts,
rather than the instructor being primarily responsible for content choice and delivery.
Evaluation
The main rationale for such courses is as follows:
• They are more appropriate for developing the skills and knowledge learners need in a
digital age;
• They are more active and engaging for learners, resulting in deeper learning;
• They make better use of new technologies by exploiting their unique teaching potential;
• These approaches usually result in quicker and relatively low-cost course development and
delivery compared with the instructional design approach; and
• They are transforming teaching into a more modern, relevant methodology that better suits
today’s learners.
However, such approaches require highly confident and effective instructors with experience
in using new technology for teaching, combined with the team approach described earlier.
Above all, instructors need to have a good grasp of both pedagogy and technology, as well as
subject expertise. Direct instructional design and technology support is also essential. Most
of these approaches are so new that there is relatively little research on their effectiveness.
They are therefore a high-risk activity for an instructor, especially those with little experience of
online teaching.
This is a very abbreviated description of fast-developing, constantly changing approaches to online
learning. You are especially encouraged to do the follow-up reading below.
Implications
1. It is generally a mistake to merely transport your classroom teaching to an online environment.
Online students work in different contexts and have different needs to students in face-to-face
classes. Online courses need to be redesigned to accommodate the unique requirements of
online learners.
2. There is a strong body of knowledge about how to design online courses well. You ignore this at
your peril. Consequences of ignoring best practices may include poor learning results, a much
heavier workload than anticipated, and dissatisfied students and superiors.
3. It is best to work in a team. Instructional designers have knowledge about teaching online that
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
most instructors lack. While you are always in control of content selection, assessment and
overall teaching approach, instructional designers need to be listened to as equals.
4. New technologies have the promise of radically changing teaching, making it more relevant,
more engaging for students, and more exciting and challenging for an instructor.
Follow-up
This is a very simplified account of the different kinds of online learning. For a more extensive
coverage, see:
• Chapter 4, Methods of teaching using an online focus, in Teaching in a Digital Age.
16
For more on cognitive load and online learning design, see:
• Van Merriënboer, J. and Ayres, P. (2005) Research on Cognitive Load Theory and Its Design
Implications for E-Learning Educational Technology Research and Development, Vol. 53, No.3.
For more on designs based on open education and emerging technologies see:
• Scenario F and ‘Agile’ design: flexible designs for learning in Teaching in a Digital Age.
• Chapter 10, Trends in Open Education, in Teaching in a Digital Age.
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Guide 5. When should I use online learning?
This question ‘When should I use online learning?’ is difficult to answer in a short guide
because there are many possible reasons, and as always in education, the answers are
absolutely dependent on the specific context in which you are working, but the reasons can be
classified under three main headings: academic, market, and policy/administrative.
Academic reasons
These boil down to relevancy and the changing nature of knowledge in a digital age.
Curriculum requirements
Technology is affecting the content of curriculum in nearly all subject disciplines. It is increasingly
difficult to think of an academic area not undergoing profound changes as a result of information
and communications technologies (ICTs).
For instance, any business program now needs to look at the impact of social media and the
Internet on marketing and on the delivery of goods. How are ICTs going to change financial
investments and advising? In science and engineering, to what extent is animation, simulations
or the use of virtual reality enabling a better understanding of three-dimensional phenomena,
equations or formulae? In humanities and fine arts, to what extent are ICTs changing the way we
express ourselves? How do we ensure our students are digitally literate and responsible? How do
we prepare our students for a world controlled by massive technology companies who track our
every movement and expression?
It is difficult to think how these issues can be addressed without students themselves going
online to study such issues.
Skills development
Also, the skills our students need to develop in a digital age are often best achieved through the
use of ICTs. In Chapter 1.2 of Teaching in a Digital Age, I give more detailed examples of such
skills. Many of these skills are not only best developed by, but may not even be possible without,
students spending an extensive period studying online.
However, I want to focus on two ‘core’ 21st century skills: independent learning and knowledge
management.
In a knowledge-based society, students need to go on learning throughout life and outside the
formal academic curriculum. Jobs are constantly changing as the knowledge base changes, and
even our social lives are increasingly dominated by technological change. Independent learning
– or self-learning – is a skill that itself can be taught. Online learning in particular requires self-
discipline and independent learning, because the instructor is often not physically ‘there’. Thus
gradually introducing learners to online learning can help build their independent learning skills.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
Perhaps the overarching ‘21st century skill’ though is knowledge management: how to find,
analyse, evaluate, apply and communicate knowledge, especially when much of this knowledge
is Internet-based or located, and constantly undergoing change. Students then need many
opportunities to practice such skills, and online learning often provides a means by which this can
be done in a cost-effective manner.
Whether we like it or not, an understanding and management of the use of ICTs is becoming
critical in almost any subject area. Students need to go online to study such phenomena, and
to practice core 21st century skills. To do this, students need to spend much more time than at
present studying online. Again, though, we need to ensure the balance between online and face-to-
face time is also properly managed.
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Market reasons
Not only is knowledge undergoing rapid change, so are demographics. In most economically
advanced societies, the population is aging. Over time, this means fewer younger students
coming straight from high school, and more lifelong learners, perhaps already with post-secondary
qualifications, but wanting to upgrade or move to a new profession or job and hence needing new
knowledge and skills.
Also, with mass education, our students are increasingly diverse, in culture, languages and prior
knowledge. One size of teaching does not fit all. We need ways then to individualize our programs.
In particular, there are many pedagogical problems with very large lecture classes. They do not
meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Online learning is one way to allow
students to work at different speeds, and to individualize the learning with online options enabling
some choice in topics or level of study.
The changing population base offers opportunities as well as challenges. For instance, your
area of research may be too specialized to offer a whole program or course within your current
catchment area, but by going online you can attract enough students nationally or globally to make
the effort worthwhile. These are new students bringing in extra tuition revenues that can cover
the full costs of an online masters degree, for instance. At the same time, online learning enables
critically important areas of academic development to reach a wider audience, helping create new
labour markets and expand new areas of research.
Policy/Administrative
We all know the situation where a president or vice chancellor has gone to a conference and
comes back ‘converted’. Suddenly, the whole ship is expected to make an abrupt right turn and
head off in a new direction. Unfortunately, online learning often leads to enthusiastic converts.
MOOCs are a classic example of how a few elite universities suddenly got the attention of
university and college leaders, who all charged off in the same direction.
Nevertheless, there can also be good policy reasons for institutional leadership wanting to move
more to blended or flexible learning, for instance. One is to improve the quality of teaching and
learning (breaking up large lecture classes is one example); another reason is to expand the reach
of the university or college beyond its traditional base, for demographic and economic reasons;
a third is to provide more flexibility for full-time students who are often working up to 15 hours a
week to pay for their studies.
These policy shifts provide an excellent opportunity then to meet some of the academic rationales
mentioned earlier. It is much easier to move into online learning if there is institutional support
for this. This often includes extra money for release time for faculty to develop online courses,
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
extra support in the way of instructional and media design, and even better chances of promotion
or tenure.
Implications
1. It can be seen that while market and policy reasons may be forcing you towards online
learning, there are also excellent and valid academic reasons for moving in this direction.
2. However, the extent to which online learning is a solution depends very much on the particular
context in which it is used. It is essential you carefully think through where it best fits within
your own teaching context: blended learning for undergraduate students; masters programs for
working professionals; skills development for applied learning; or all of these?
3. Online learning is not going to go away. It will play a larger role in teaching in even the most
campus-based institutions. Most of all, your students can benefit immensely from online
learning, but only if it is done well.
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Follow-up
Chapter 1, Fundamental Change in Education, of Teaching in a Digital Age, is basically a broader
rationale for the use of online learning.
Chapters 3 and 4 look at ways to individualize learning; see in particular:
• 4.4 Online collaborative learning
• 4.5 Competency-based learning
• 4.7 Agile design
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
20
Guide 6. How do I start?
Warming up
By reading these 10 guides, you have already started. It shows you have an interest. However,
you should see these 10 guides more as a warm-up than the real game. Warm-ups are valuable.
They save you getting hurt when you start playing, but they are not the real thing. So here are at
least two quite different strategies for getting started into the real ‘game’ of teaching online.
and needs. Reading these 10 guides and dipping into Teaching in a Digital Age is very good
preparation for this initial meeting.
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Step 3: Think about what kind of online course you are interested in
In the first and fourth guides, I describe a number of different types of online courses, from
blended, to hybrid to fully online, using recorded lectures (not recommended) or an instructional
design approach (highly recommended). Also think carefully about the needs of your students
as well as the pedagogical reasons for going online. What type of online learning best suits your
students? Teaching in a Digital Age is particularly useful in helping you make these kinds of
decisions (see Follow-Up below).
However, in your context, whatever I may personally recommend, what makes the most sense
to you in your context? For instance, if you are unfortunate enough to be in an institution where
instructional design support is not available to you, then recorded lectures may be a better option.
Also, NOT doing online learning, because the support is just not there, should also be an option.
Better not to do it than to do it badly. But make sure you have explored all the possibilities before
coming to this decision, and let your head of department know why you are making this decision.
not enough, of course, but better than doing nothing in the way of preparation.
Implications
1. Teaching online is a professional activity with a strong knowledge base. It is not something to
be done lightly or without proper preparation.
2. In most cases, there should be professional help available. Seek it out and listen to what they
have to say. If there is none in your institution, perhaps it’s better not to go down this route.
3. Your online teaching strategy should really be part of a wider strategy for teaching and learning
within your academic department. Your first online course should fit within this strategy; if
there is no strategy or plan for online learning, get involved in creating one.
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Follow-up
Hard to know where to begin here, other than read through Teaching in a Digital Age. In
particular, read:
• All the guides in this 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors;
• For deciding on what type of online course to offer, read Chapter 4, Methods of teaching with
an online focus and Chapter 9, Modes of Delivery;
• With respect to why you need to go to professionals for support, and for getting your academic
department onside, read Chapter 12, Supporting teachers and instructors in a digital age;
and
• For ensuring quality in your online teaching, see Chapter 11, ‘Ensuring quality teaching in a
digital age’ and Appendix 1, Building an Effective Learning Environment.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
23
Guide 7. Why not just record my lectures?
I gave a short answer to ‘Why not just record my lectures?’ in the fourth guide, but it deserves a
fuller answer. It is natural that faculty and instructors want to use an approach to teaching that is
not only familiar and comfortable, but has been used for hundreds of years, so has passed the
test of time. However, there are several reasons why recorded classroom lectures are not a good
idea for online learning, at least not as the main form of delivering online courses.
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voice, images, and text in video for teaching (see, for instance Mayer, 2009). To incorporate
the factors that make the use of video effective for learning, the type of lecture usually
delivered in a classroom would need to be considerably re-designed to make it more effective
for remote learners.
In addition, there are many other, more creative and relevant ways than lectures for using video
for teaching, such as demonstrations of equipment, experiments or processes, animation, and
examples drawn from the real world to illustrate abstract concepts.
the form of text or online readings, provide a forum for discussion on course topics, provide
regular online activities and assignments, and could include links to short videos. Indeed,
a short introductory video to a topic by the instructor is often a good idea, providing a personal
link between you and your students.
I discuss other possible online learning environments in later guides.
Implications
1. A talking head delivering 50-minute lectures is, in general, not a good way to teach
online learners.
2. It is better in the long run to sit down with an instructional designer and build a course from
scratch that is appropriate for an online learning environment, rather than try to force your
classroom teaching online.
3. Video is a good medium to use for online learning, but only if it exploits its unique
pedagogical benefits.
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4. Talking heads are therefore useful only in particular contexts, and not as a way to deliver a
whole program or course online.
5. Developing quality video for online learning requires a professional approach involving lecturer,
instructional designer and a multimedia or video producer.
Follow-up
For a critique of the limitations of classroom lectures based on research by Donald Bligh, see
Chapter 3.3 Transmissive lectures: learning by listening in Teaching in a Digital Age.
For a good summary of best design principles for developing video/multimedia for learning, based
on research on the learning effectiveness of video, see the University of British Columbia’s Design
Principles for Multimedia.
For a discussion of the pedagogical potential of video, see Chapter 7.4.2, Presentational features
in Teaching in a Digital Age
If you want to follow up on the research and theory on which this guide is based see:
• Bligh, D. (2000) What’s the Use of Lectures? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Mayer, R. E. (2009). Multimedia Learning (2nd ed). New York: Cambridge University Press.
• McKeachie, W. and Svinicki, M. (2006) McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research and
Theory for College and University Teachers Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
26
Guide 8. Won’t online learning be more work?
More work?
The short answer is, yes, of course, at least in the short term. This is because online teaching
is the same as any other skill. When you first start, you have to learn a lot, and do things you
haven’t done before. For instance, as I discussed in earlier guides, you have to think carefully
about why you are using online learning, talk to colleagues and work with other professionals
such as instructional and web designers, master the technology, such as video recording or a
learning management system, and basically rethink and redesign your teaching. This takes time,
and your first online course will undoubtedly be more work and more challenging than your most
recent face-to-face course.
However, in the long run, there is no reason why online teaching should be more work than face-to-
face teaching, all other things being equal which, of course, they never are in teaching. As always,
there are important conditions to be met, if you don’t want to be swamped with extra work. So
let’s look at what these conditions are.
put into the development of the course in the first year, the less time you find yourself spending
on content during the delivery of the course, because it is already there. Multiply this over several
offerings of the course and the time shift can lead to either significant time savings for you,
or, more likely, spending your time better in working directly, if online, with students, such as
monitoring and contributing to online discussion of the course content.
For this reason, many institutions now offer funding to enable you to ‘buy yourself out’ of a face-
to-face class for one or two semesters in order to prepare your first online course. Once you have
some experience in this more traditional form of online learning, you can move to more ‘agile’
designs later, but that is another matter altogether. The first time out, you and your students need
a clear structure and framework for the course.
Also, it is at this stage of course development that working with other professionals such as an
instructional designer and web designer is most valuable. They should be able to provide the
necessary advice and above all a framework and timetable for your work in designing the course.
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Managing class size
I mentioned earlier that online teaching should not be more work, all things being equal. However,
sometimes the aim is to use online learning in order to handle large classes or take extra
students. These pressures may be coming from the administration rather than from you – or
alternatively you may be concerned about the quality of the teaching of large face-to-face classes
when many are delivered not by you but by teaching assistants who have barely more content
knowledge than those they are teaching and who in particular may not have good lecturing skills.
The general rule for the most appropriate numbers for an individual instructor to teach online is
pretty much the same as for face-to-face teaching. Once the instructor: student ratio goes over
1:30, it becomes harder to individualize the teaching and the instructor’s work load increases,
unless the course is focused mainly on quantitative or ‘objective’ outcomes that can be
automatically assessed, through, for instance, computer marked assignments. It is generally the
marking that leads to overload when classes get beyond 30 per instructor.
However, because with online learning the content is available at any time and any place for
students, there is some scope for scaling up the teaching to handle larger numbers. In particular,
if the teaching content on the course is well developed by a top quality professor or instructor,
all students receive the same quality of content instruction. This means that learner support and
student assessment (marking) can then be supported by contract sessional instructors as class
size increases.
The availability of funding for hiring additional sessional instructors depends on the business
model behind the online program. If you are merely moving students from an existing face-to-face
course to an online course, then there is no extra money from tuition fees. However, if the online
program is attracting new students paying additional tuition fees, then the extra funding can be
used to hire more sessional instructors.
In many North American universities, the tuition fee once an online course is developed more than
covers the cost of additional sessional instructors, even with ‘steps’ of 30 students (i.e. for every
additional 30 students you hire another sessional). Much of this of course depends on faculty
agreements, but from your point of view, redesign of a large face-to-face course by moving it online
can not only improve the quality but also enable you to manage your own workload better.
What I would advise against is the use of graduate students as teaching assistants for online
courses. The redesign of online courses requires instructors who can go beyond the ‘recorded’
content of an online course and can push students in online discussion groups, for instance,
to challenge ideas and go deeper than just the formal online content. This requires sessional
instructors with a good understanding of content and good inter-personal teaching skills to handle
the extra students as class size increases.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
In summary then, managing your workload as online class size increases requires
several conditions:
• ‘Core’ content of high quality that does not need to be changed a lot from year to year;
• Learning/course design that provides a strong structure for students so it is clear what they
need to do when studying;
• Professional instructional design and web/media design support; and
• Flexibility to hire additional, well-qualified sessional instructors as class size increases.
In the end, this may mean moving to a team approach to teaching large online classes. In some
cases, the senior instructor’s responsibility may not involve direct teaching at all, but being
responsible for the curriculum/content, setting learning outcomes, designing assessments, and
supervising the learning support and assignment marking provided by sessional instructors.
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Shifting from content to skills development
What online learning can do is enable you, as an instructor or teacher, to move away from ‘sage-
on-the-stage’, where you are responsible for choosing and delivering content, and assessing how
well students comprehended this content, to ‘guide-on-the-side’, where students find, analyze and
apply content, and develop higher level skills through practice, often working with other students
online, through discussion or project work, but always under your guidance, or under the guidance
of a team of sessional instructors you monitor.
Implications
1. Such changes inevitably mean more work, and more challenges, initially, in moving to online
learning, but the benefits in both the quality of what your students learn, and the quality of
your own engagement with students, can be substantial.
2. There are also strategies for managing your workload when teaching online, so over time you
can better balance your teaching, research and administrative responsibilities.
3. But online learning is not something to be undertaken lightly. You need to do it professionally,
or it is both more work and very frustrating.
Follow-up
For more on the design of online courses, see:
• Chapter 4, Methods of Teaching Online, in Teaching in a Digital Age.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
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Guide 9. How can I do online learning well?
assurance standards, organizations and research on online learning can be found here.
I’m not going to duplicate these. Instead, I’m going to suggest a series of practical steps towards
implementing such standards. Chapter 11 of Teaching in a Digital Age sets out nine steps to
quality online learning. Ideally, you should read the whole of this chapter before starting out on
your first online course, but in this guide I provide a brief summary of each step.
I am assuming all the standard institutional processes towards program approval for an
online course were taken, although it might be worth thinking through my nine steps outlined
below before finally submitting a proposal. This would be a good way to anticipate and address
any questions and concerns your colleagues may have about online learning. My nine-step
approach also works when considering the redesign of an existing course.
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The nine steps are as follows:
1. Step 1: Decide how you want to teach
2. Step 2: Decide on mode of delivery
3. Step 3: Work in a Team
4. Step 4: Build on existing resources
5. Step 5: Master the technology
6. Step 6: Set appropriate learning goals
7. Step 7: Design course structure and learning activities
8. Step 8: Communicate, communicate, communicate
9. Step 9: Evaluate and innovate
I am providing below a very brief description of each step. Just click on the heading for each step
to see the full section in Teaching in a Digital Age.
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2. What kind of course or program?
Where on that continuum should your course be? There are four factors or variables to take into
account when deciding what ‘mix’ of face-to-face and online learning is best for your course:
• Your preferred teaching philosophy – how you like to teach;
• The needs/backgrounds of the students (or potential students);
• The demands of the discipline; and
• The resources available to you.
You need to read Chapter 9 of Teaching in a Digital Age for help in making that decision.
3. Work in a team
Working in a team makes life a lot easier for instructors when teaching blended or online courses.
Good course design, which is the area of expertise of the instructional designer, not only enables
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
students to learn better but also controls faculty workload. Courses look better with good graphic
and web design and professional video production. Specialist technical help frees up instructors
to concentrate on teaching and learning.
Working in a team of course depends heavily on the institution providing such support through
a centre of teaching and learning. Nevertheless, this is an important decision that needs to be
implemented before course design begins.
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But as well as open resources designated as ‘educational’, there is a great deal of ‘raw’
content on the Internet that can be invaluable for teaching. The main question is whether you,
as the instructor, need to find such material, or whether it is better to get students to search,
find, select, analyze, evaluate and apply information. After all, these are key skills for a digital
age students need to have.
Most content is not unique or original. Most of the time, we are standing on the shoulders of
giants, that is, organizing and managing knowledge already discovered. Only in the areas where
you have unique, original research that is not yet published, or where you have your own ‘spin’ on
content, is it really necessary to create ‘content’ from scratch.
Chapter 10, Trends in Open Education, in Teaching in a Digital Age is essential further reading
on how to make full use of already existing resources.
What this is likely to mean in terms of course design is using the Internet increasingly as a major
resource for learning, giving students more responsibility for finding and evaluating information
themselves, and instructors providing criteria and guidelines for finding, evaluating, analyzing
and applying information within a specific knowledge domain. This requires a critical approach to
online searches, online data, news or knowledge generation in specific knowledge domains – in
other words, the development of critical thinking about the Internet and modern media – both their
potential and limitations within a specific subject domain.
It is pointless to introduce new learning goals or outcomes and then not assess how well students
achieved those goals. Assessment drives student behaviour. If they are not to be assessed on
the skills outlined above, they won’t make the effort to develop them. The main challenge may not
be in setting appropriate goals for online learning, but ensuring you have the tools and means to
assess whether students achieved those goals.
And even more importantly, it is necessary to communicate very clearly to students these new
learning goals and how they are assessed. This may come as a shock to many students who are
used to being fed content and then tested on their memory of it.
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7. Design course structure and learning activities
In a strong teaching structure, students know exactly what they need to learn, what they are
supposed to do to learn this, and when and where they are supposed to do it. In a loose
structure, student activity is more open and less controlled by the teacher. The choice of teaching
structure of course has implications for the work of teachers and instructors as well as students.
‘Strong’ teaching structure is not inherently better than a ‘loose’ structure, nor inherently
associated with either face-to-face or online teaching. The choice (as so often in teaching)
depends on the specific circumstances. However, choosing the optimum or most appropriate
teaching structure is critical for quality teaching and learning, and while the optimum structures
for online teaching share many common features with face-to-face teaching, in other ways they
differ considerably. Chapter 11 of Teaching in a Digital Age looks at several specific areas where
online learning requires a different approach to structure and learning activities from face-to-face
teaching. It is probably in this step that the differences between face-to-face and online learning
are greatest.
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• Other motivated learners to provide mutual support and encouragement.
There are many different ways these criteria can be met, with many different tools.
Follow-up
Despite the length of this guide, it is still a brief summary. You are strongly recommended to read
the following chapter in full:
• Chapter 11, Ensuring quality teaching in a digital age.
Indeed, you are now at the stage where you should be reading the whole book, and in particular the early
chapters on epistemology and teaching methods.
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
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Guide 10. Ready to go
Additional resources
Although I hope these 10 guides help you decide to teach online, there is always more to
learn. Therefore, the following additional resources can contribute to your development as
an online instructor.
1. Read Teaching in a Digital Age. This free, online textbook is designed to help you develop the
knowledge and skills your students need in a digital age. It could be read from cover to cover,
but it’s more likely to be useful as a resource to be dipped into as and when needed. The
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
book covers:
– The types of knowledge and the skills students need in a digital age;
– How online learning can help develop these skills;
– Different approaches to teaching online;
– How to decide on the right mix of online and face-to-face teaching;
– How to find and use open educational resources;
– How to choose between different media;
– Nine steps to quality online learning;
– Organizational requirements for effective online learning; and
– How to create an effective online learning environment.
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2. Take an online course on how to teach online. This not only provides you with the knowledge
and techniques you need, but also gives you the experience of what it feels like to study
online. Look for programs that allow you to take (and pay) for one course at a time, such as
UBC’s Master in Educational Technology. For a list of online programs that provide you with a
good foundation for teaching online, see: Recommended graduate programs in e-learning.
3. Follow regular online publications written in non-technical language aimed at those teaching
online, such as:
– teachonline.ca from Contact North | Contact Nord, Ontario, Canada (‘Pockets of Innovation’
is particularly useful)
– Flexible Learning, University of British Columbia, Canada (the case studies again are
interesting)
– Frontiers from WCET (the Western Co-operative for Educational Technology, USA)
– EDUCAUSE Review (USA)
– Jisc’s Online Learning Guides, U.K.
– Learning Design tool, from Australian Flexible Learning Network
– My own blog: Online Learning and Distance Education Resources contains over 2,000
posts on different issues in and resources for online learning – use the search box to
search for specific topics.
4. For a list of the main journals on research and development in online teaching, see:
E-Learning Journals, and/or the American Association of Computers in Education’s
LearnTechLib. I recommend particularly:
– IRRODL (International Review of Research on Open and Distance Learning): an open,
online journal
– British Journal of Educational Technology
– Online Learning, the online journal of the Sloan-C Online Learning Consortium, USA
5. At the risk of repeating myself, work with your local centre for teaching and learning, or centre
for learning technologies, or centre for distance education, and attend any faculty development
workshops on online learning. There is more to learn all the time.
The end
So good luck with your new adventure in teaching at least partly online.
If you have found this series useful, please pass it on to colleagues who you think may also
The 10 Fundamentals of Teaching Online for Faculty and Instructors
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